Sithabile Mkhize:
Sithabile Mkhize is the producer of the film, God’s Work, and is an iconic figure in Durban, South Africa. She has been involved in multiple influential Durban-based films, such as Dreams of Gomorrah. This is a conversation about what the trajectory of film might look like in Durban and what the trajectory looks like right now—God’s Work.
Tshi : What inspired you to create a film about Durban’s homeless population, portraying them as powerful characters, when their stories are rarely told?
Sithabile : Yes, so I guess it’s a combination of what is important to me as a filmmaker. So I think what’s important to me is to tell the stories of people on the margins of society, but tell it in a way that’s interesting and not just pitiful and basic.
For me, it’s in terms of telling stories about people in the margins of society. Social commentary is very important to me, but also entertainment value is very important to me, and also cinematic quality. So it feels like God’s Work was a combination of all the things that are important to me as a filmmaker.
And when you look at God’s Work, I feel like the entertainment value comes from the characters. For me, my definition of entertainment value is not Hollywood, it’s how to keep you engaged in the story, in which you don’t feel bored and you feel constantly on your toes with what’s in the film.
And God’s Work does that by playing with the form of cinema and story. And I really like the way that it’s an interesting way to tell the story of homeless people in Durban, but doesn’t tell them in terms of a bland social realism lens, which is basically, this is sad, this is what it actually looks like on the ground.
But it tells you in a way that gets your emotions involved; it gets you imagining things and makes you think. So it’s not just like telling you information, it’s making you feel. So God’s Work definitely combines all my cinematic obsessions and things that I’m thinking about.
Tshi: Were there challenges doing that sometimes, balancing character-driven storytelling with cinematic appeal, and how did you overcome them?
Sithabile: Well, yes, to be honest, it was difficult to do on the page, because on the page, which is the most important part of the process, is to make it clear. So for the kind of story of God’s Work, there were so many different elements and such high level ambitions. It was important to think with clarity, to make sure no one’s confused as we go on with these big ideas.
And in terms of actual cinematic value, I think I didn’t have too much stress about that, because I had my faith in Michael, the director and his DOP, Jared Hyde, who worked together many times. So for me, the focus was the story, making it not only clear and in total, but also possible.
The first drafts of the God’s Work script were a budget that is impossible. You have to make things that you can actually make. So as directors, it’s very heart-breaking to tell them that this is not actually possible, but it’s just a matter of taking what you want to do and finding out what’s possible, and then you find that it actually brings things that are even better.
Tshi: How did you pitch this unconventional blend of docu-fiction and experimental storytelling featuring marginalised characters to secure funding?
Sithabile: To be honest, it was tough. It was a tough sell. Most people would find it difficult to understand it. Also it was difficult because Michael wasn’t like a known name, so it was difficult for people to trust that he could pull off his great ambition.
So it was a tough sell. And the thing that we ended up doing was we got a lot of local funding. So all the kind of funding that we could get locally, we got that money.
They were much more willing to take a chance because I guess they have different mandates than people who were doing it for profit. We kind of shot the film before we had all the money for post-production, having faith that when people see it, they’ll understand. We shot it, we just did a rough cut, and then we were looking for partners for post-production funding.
And then that’s when we got our co-producer, brought them on board to help us complete the post-production process, but also to help us market and release the film into the market. That’s been our strategy.
Tshi: I think that makes a lot of sense. It’s a local film. Is there a strategy to distribute the film internationally, given its local focus, and do you believe its themes will resonate with global audiences?
Sithabile: That’s always been our goal from the beginning, because we felt that homelessness is not just a Durban problem. Every major society, every city in the world is facing the moral dilemma of what to do with the homeless community as the cost of living goes crazy and people are struggling to fight more.
And this homeless community, homeless problem is a growing part of our business, around the world. So that’s our angle that we believe that everyone in the world can understand the problem. And then we thought that because we always believe that this is a global story, even though it’s a very small focus. So our strategy has always included international, because also the art house market in South Africa is very small. So our eyes are always international. So with investment is the reason why our co-producer came on board. He saw the international potential for this very local film because of the quality of the actual image which is important for people internationally.
So he came on board seeing that the whole strategy was always to be able to sell it to different territories around the world. And right now we are looking for partners to help us do that. The support of Durban is very important to make sure that at least locally people are fully behind the story. And then people have lots of international people coming in for Durban Film Mart. And then yeah, this is like the launchpad into our big strategy. And then the next step is to go into a festival run.
Tshi: I think that step-by-step approach is probably really smart for a film like this. But after watching it, do you get that sense that people no longer see it as an underdog film?
Sithabile: Well, I feel like the only way that I can get a sense of that is in the trailer. Most people haven’t seen it yet. This is going to be the first time people see the film on a grand scale. And I feel people do see it. I mean, they get it.
They get it once they’ve seen it. And in terms of an underdog film, my experience of God’s Work right now, as in this festival, people are interested in it and people want to watch it. People are excited about it. I’m holding on to that. I’m hoping for the best. Because I think people can recognise that it might be a different level, a different idea of how to tell very local cultural stories.
Tshi: Do you think that is something that will bring more people, locally, back into theaters, to support films both financially and with their eyes?
Sithabile: Yeah, I think we’ve already pushed hard with the marketing and talking about the film as far as possible. And also to really give props to the institutions here at KZN. They’ve been helping us spread the word through the KZN Tourism & Film Authority, the Durban Film Office and eThekwini Municipality.
They’ve been really helping us spread the word. So it is a matter of creating something good, having a trailer that really intrigues people and then spreading the word far and wide. And then people think something is good and will be worthy of their time.
Tshi: How has your long-term collaboration with Durban influenced your filmmaking, and do you plan to continue telling Durban-based stories?
Sithabile: Yes. So I always tell myself that I’m a part of government programs. I don’t think without the concerted effort of the programs to push female producers and black producers and disabled producers forward. I think, as a combination of I do feel I have an eye for talent and have stories to tell, but also I do think of the programs, the youth programs, all those different programs within the government. That really helped me. It mostly gave me confidence because you know sometimes you have stories to tell, but you need framing like someone to take it from step zero to step one. So for me it was. I did a micro-budget feature with Durban Film Office called Dreams of Gomorrah. And then during that process I had a mentor.
She took me literally through the step of producing a film. And that experience gave someone to ask, say okay this is what I think, this is going to work. And then the years of experience fills in the gap between what I know and what I don’t know.
And also that was an important part of my career. And then after you’re done, you’ve got Dreams of Gomorrah, it’s a small film. And then you have something to show for yourself, you know what I mean? Then you go to other programs and people ask what have you done?
You have something. That’s an important part of my career. And then the KZN Tourism and Film Authority, they sometimes take film makers to different festivals, also the NFVF took me to Berlin last year. A film career is really built on relationships. So you go to these places and then you network. And I’ve always been surprised by how everyone’s available to you. Because obviously, you have a good idea and something to show for yourself.
Tshi: So you’ve traveled internationally. Is there a time where you might be a producer outside of Durban?
Sithabile: I think I’m always going to be based in Durban, but I would like a big co-producer and co-productions to work with countries around the world and earlier on in the process, because this one came right to the end, so that we have bigger production budgets also.
Tshi: So let’s talk about that project-to-project. When you’re done with this, who knows how long that will finally take to be done with the project, are you going to take a break, are you going to head right into the next project?
Sithabile: Oh, there’s no breaks. You have to just move into the momentum. God’s Work is still going to keep me busy for a while. So yeah, just definitely keep going as far as I can.
Tshi: Good luck with the premiere tonight. This was a fantastic conversation and I hope to see more of the films that you’ll produce going forward.
Catch the film at DIFF: https://ccadiff.ukzn.ac.za/diff46/gods-work/
This review emanates from the Talent Press programme, an initiative of Talents Durban in collaboration with the Durban FilmMart Institute and FIPRESCI. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author (Tshi Malatji) and cannot be considered as constituting an official position of the organisers.